Magnificent Maggs most ecstatic

The man of the match? On the basis of this observer's straw poll on Saturday night of about 20 or 30 people (it wasn't an exact science) there were 10 nominees. A dubious award at the best of times in a 15-man game, it seemed particularly ill-fitting after such a compelling team effort.

Keith Wood was the official recipient, and there's undoubtedly a case to be made there yet again on the day when the bald wonder became Ireland's most capped hooker, equalled Tom Kiernan's record of captaining Ireland 24 times and joined Keith Crossan on 12 tries as his country's third highest try scorer. The man's a freak.

Wood led the tackle count, made a couple of big plays (and a couple which backfired) and could be seen busting a gut when running side-by-side with Denis Hickie as they chased a David Humphreys kick and hounded Iain Balshaw into a sliced kick to touch.

Yet the second leg of this truncated Six Nations campaign was notable for redeeming a few international careers which had stalled, such as those of Kevin Maggs, David Humphreys, Mick Galwey and Eric Miller. All had mighty matches again on Saturday, and Maggs epitomised Ireland's stone-wall defence and all-hands-to-the-pump physical commitment.

Maggsy is one of the less celebrated foot soldiers in this team, but after the porousness of Murrayfield it was the Bath centre who shored up the defence as much as anyone. Not alone were team-mates praising his tackling after both games, but they were also extoling his verbal communication to those around him.

Being based in Bath, this win meant as much to Maggs as any of the Irish team, as one could readily deduce from his ecstatic reaction at the end. During the lap of honour, Maggs could be seen screaming, literally, wildly.

"I'm over the moon. It's a really special feeling for me," he conceded in the car park outside the West Stand. "I don't think anything could compare to this, beating England at Lansdowne Road and stopping them getting the grand slam. I'll be looking forward to getting back to Bath.

"One thing's for sure," he continued, "I'll be wearing my Irish tracksuit into training on Monday. I watched the '94 match in Twickenhma on television, so to actually take part is something very special.

"We were in trouble there for a while at the end and I thought we might let it slip. But we hung on and I am so pleased. In fact, you could say I'm the happiest man alive. I tell you, I'm going to be the tallest man in Bath next week."

Before last week in Cardiff, Maggs' last start in the championship was on the wing in the win in Paris a-year-and-a-half ago, and his last at centre was against Italy in April 1999, when he had been a regular in the pre-O'Driscoll days.

Still beaming an hour afterwards, Maggs admitted: "No, you're not going to get this smile off my face. I just lost it at the final whistle. It really does mean so much to me."

Asked about the interminable five minutes of injury time played by Paul Honiss, Maggs admitted: "Jesus, I was just praying for him to blow that bloody whistle."

A key moment in the match was Maggs' stupendous tackle on Jason Robinson as England started to play catch-up by running the ball out from inside their 22 eight minutes from the end of normal time. Maggs enveloped Robinson's ankle and held on for dear life, before getting to his feet along with three team-mates as Robinson was penalised for not releasing. Ronan O'Gara's kick made it 20-9.

Fittingly, the match ended with Mike Catt taking the ball up the middle and being scrunched to the ground by his club team-mate Maggs, before Kyran Bracken slightly fumbled the ensuing lay-off on the ground. While there seemed to be no obvious exchange with the more glamourous member of the Bath backline, Iain Balshaw, Maggs contented himself with a brief "hard luck" to Catt, before, as he admitted, losing himself in elation.

"We wanted it more than they did and that was reflected in the effort we put in. I think our tackling and our defence was brilliant. We knew we were up against a great side, but we just went after them."

Nobody went after them more than Maggs, and no one is entitled to feel more satisfied. "You don't know how much this means to me as an Irish player playing in England. I'll never forget this day."